The Points Guy's Travel Hacking Tips to Fly for FREE in 2025

BiggerPockets Money Podcast

BiggerPockets

Investing, Education, Business

4.6 • 2.9K Ratings

🗓️ 11 February 2025

⏱️ 47 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Travel hacking allows you to fly and travel for free, often in luxury, without spending tens of thousands of dollars on flights or hotels. So, how do you do it without managing thirty different credit cards in your wallet? Brian Kelly, AKA The Points Guy, world-renowned travel hacking expert and author of the new book How to Win at Travel, is here to show you as we rapid-fire our top credit card rewards questions at him. In this show, you’ll learn how to fly to Europe, Asia, and beyond for FREE, even in business class, all by spending the same amount of money you typically would every month. These cards can turn your weekly grocery run into free flights, hotel stays, cashback, and more, plus give you huge perks like airport lounge access, travel protection, and even a credit to spend on your next trip. Love free money? This is how you get it. Plus, we’re asking The Points Guy what cards he has in HIS wallet, what he spends on which card, and why he does NOT recommend staying loyal to a specific airline, even if you travel often. These tips alone could save you thousands of dollars this year while turning your economy seat into a lie-flat first-class experience. Don’t let your money go to waste; start travel hacking! In This Episode We Cover How to travel for free by spending money on groceries, eating out, and business expenses The Points Guy’s three favorite credit cards that everyone should keep in their wallet Why you (probably) shouldn’t stay loyal to a specific airline, even if you have their credit card Why Chase points can get you even MORE free travel than American Express points Evaluating annual credit card fees and whether a $300+/year credit card is worth it Best credit cards for renters and those who live a frugal lifestyle (but still want to travel!) And So Much More! Links from the Show Mindy on BiggerPockets Scott on BiggerPockets Listen to All Your Favorite BiggerPockets Podcasts in One Place Join BiggerPockets for FREE Email Mindy: [email protected] Email Scott: [email protected] BiggerPockets Money Facebook Group Follow BiggerPockets Money on Instagram “Like” BiggerPockets Money on Facebook Point.me Seats.aero Get Early Access to Real Estate’s Biggest Event of the Year, BPCON2025 Learn to Save and Spend the Right Way with “Set for Life” Find an Investor-Friendly Agent in Your Area How to Earn Free Vacations With Travel Rewards Credit Cards (00:00) Intro (01:39) Travel for FREE! (06:06) Best Credit Cards for Beginners (13:48) Annual Fees (17:56) Brian’s Favorite Credit Cards (20:51) Airline and Hotel Partner Cards (27:49) Keeping Track of Cards (29:34) Best First Card? (31:21) Cards for Low-Spenders (34:03) Inheriting Points? (36:52) WIN at Travel! (39:01) Get Your Points! Check out more resources from this show on BiggerPockets.com and https://www.biggerpockets.com/blog/money-606 Interested in learning more about today’s sponsors or becoming a BiggerPockets partner yourself? Email [email protected] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Are you traveling for free or are you leaving money on the table? In today's episode, we're joined by
0:06.1	Brian Kelly, the points guy, the ultimate authority on point hacking to make sure you are traveling
0:12.2	for $0 this year. Let's find out if you're missing out. And just for fun, I was on a plane the other
0:18.9	day. I saw the points guy right there on the side of the plane. I was so excited. Hello, hello, hello, and welcome to the Bigger Pockets Money podcast. My name is Mindy, and with me as always is my finally starting to earn credit cards rewards points co-host, Scott Trench. Thanks, Mindy. I'm really looking forward to redeeming myself with this podcast here.
0:44.6	Bigger Pockets has a goal of creating one million millionaires. You're in the right place if you want to get your financial house in order because we truly believe financial freedom is attainable for everyone.
0:55.1	No matter when or where you're starting or how bad you've been with credit card point usage like me with 600, I think it's 750,000 to a million points that have got unused for 10 years despite doing this for a living. All right. With that, Ryan, the points guy, we are super excited to have you on
0:59.7	Bigger Pockets Money today. Can you teach us and me a little bit about this subject today?
1:03.6	Well, first of all, this is now an intervention because you're what I call a points hoarder.
1:08.0	So this is a alert to everyone who does like you. You should use your
1:12.3	points. It is financial malpractice to hoard points because they lose value over time. But that's a
1:18.5	more advanced topic. But no, I'm super excited to share today. Everyone should be playing the points game.
1:23.6	Even if you don't want to travel, the industry has evolved so much. It's ultra lucrative.
1:29.3	So if you're not paying attention to points, hear me clearly, you are throwing cash in a
1:35.5	trash can. So hopefully this episode will help you get on the right track.
1:40.1	What's better place to start, Brian? Should we start with if you have amassed a bunch of points,
1:44.3	because you signed up for one of these things 10 years ago after talking to some, you know,
1:47.9	superstar expert on travel rewards and you never did anything with them, how do you begin
1:51.7	use them? Or should we start with what's a baseline strategy for someone starting from zero,
1:55.2	which is probably more common? Yeah, well, let's hook people, like I bet a lot of your listeners have a lot of points.
2:01.1	And the answer is really easy.
2:02.7	So over the last four years, there has been a proliferation of technology, these paid tools,
2:09.3	which will actually tell you exactly how to use your points yourself.
	...

Transcript will be available on the free plan in -3 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BiggerPockets, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of BiggerPockets and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.